


The Letter

by TwilightGalaxies



Series: Resident Evil: The Valentine Chronicles [2]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Depression, F/F, Game: Resident Evil 5, Grief/Mourning, I Made Myself Cry, Jill is fine I promise, Kind of a spoiler, Loss, Not Really Character Death, Sad, Short One Shot, Sweet, jackednotstacked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:01:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24050983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightGalaxies/pseuds/TwilightGalaxies
Summary: I hope I did the Redfields justice. As the tags imply this one shot is extremely sad with a few sweet moments here and there. I had a strong urge to express how Claire would have felt and reacted to what happened at the Spencer Estate so here is the end result. It's shorter than I expected it to be but here is another edition to the series! As an aside, the stories may skip around in the timeline.
Relationships: Claire Redfield/Jill Valentine
Series: Resident Evil: The Valentine Chronicles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728292
Comments: 15
Kudos: 27





	The Letter

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I did the Redfields justice. As the tags imply this one shot is extremely sad with a few sweet moments here and there. I had a strong urge to express how Claire would have felt and reacted to what happened at the Spencer Estate so here is the end result. It's shorter than I expected it to be but here is another edition to the series! As an aside, the stories may skip around in the timeline.

A hundred pieces of glass shattered from the force of the impact as the pieces tumbled in the air. It was instantaneous and the crash of the sound was violent and almost as loud as a gunshot. She sat up quickly in alarm, blue eyes wide and her stomach lurching with nausea at the sound. She looked around her damp red hair clinging to her face, but she struggled to see through the pitch black she was surrounded with. 

Her chest rose and fell several times and the clinging of sweat stuck to her neck, face, and chest. Moving her hand she shuddered before she shifted to turn on a lamp. The orange glow of the bedside lamp illuminated a portion of the room at the click and she proceeded to grab a knife tucked underneath her pillow. 

Clinging to the sharp blade’s handle for comfort, Claire sucked in deep breaths when there was nothing but silence for several minutes. She clenched her eyes shut and she tightened her grip upon the realization of what had happened. 

Shakily the blade in her hand landed beside her and she reached for her cell dialing a number while she tried to clear her eyes from the building tears. 

Finally the phone responded with its typical recorded message and Claire kept her eyes closed when the device suddenly played a voice. 

“This is Valentine. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible, if you’re important.” 

Claire chuckled softly at the voicemail, her hand tightening around the phone as warm tears leaked from her eyes. She began to sob when the voicemail played again the message playing a voice she dearly missed. When she tried to get the voicemail to play again she stopped herself clicking the red button with a breath. Blinking away the tears when her phone buzzed, the white light lit up Claire’s teary eyed expression as the tears slid down her cheeks. Looking to see her brother’s name she cleared her sore throat before answering.

“Claire, what are you doing awake? Are you alright?” She heard Chris ask in an exhausted but alert tone which let her know that he has yet to get any sleep. He was an insomniac so she felt she should have known he would be awake at this ungodly hour. Glancing at the green numbers on her alarm clock to check she saw that it was 4:10 in the morning. 

“I just had a nightmare…woke up because my mirror fell off the wall.” Claire answered glumly, knowing better than to beat around the bush when it came to Chris. 

“I figured as much.” He replied with sympathy.

“How did you guess?” She proceeded to question sniffling while she spoke. 

“You called her cell…” Chris started his voice drifting which caused Claire to quirk a brow in confusion. 

“I’m at her apartment.” He admitted and Claire drifted to the side of the bed upon hearing this. 

“Hold on a second.” She said to Chris, looking at the broken mirror on the floor before she glanced down at her boots. She slipped her feet into her brown boots before she tied them not caring that she wasn’t dressed in anything but pajamas which were soft loose pants and a black sports bra. She walked to her closet and she hurriedly tugged a shirt from a hanger before she pulled it on. It was among her favorites, a rock t-shirt with Led Zeppelin in red on the front of it. Putting her hair up with a snap she carefully stepped past the glass on the floor as she lifted the cell back up to her ear walking towards her bedroom door as she did.

“Chris, why are you there?” Claire questioned in a soft tone knowing ever since he had given her the news of Jill’s disappearance or death as the B.S.A.A. ruled it, he had been refraining from going around anything that reminded him of Jill. She could understand it in a way even though she often found herself driving past her apartment imaging her walking out of it. 

“I got a letter from Jill’s lawyer but I haven’t found what the letter mentioned yet.” She could hear the obvious frustration in her brother’s voice and she paused her heart racing at the prospect. Struggling for her next words, Claire slipped on a jacket before she slipped her 9mm handgun into her jacket pocket. 

“A letter?” Claire questioned switching her phone into her other hand as she walked towards the front door. She grabbed her keys and stuck them into her other pocket while her footsteps tapped quickly against the wooden floor. 

“She made arrangements with her lawyer to send all of us letters and a few things. She-She was prepared for this.” He went on and Claire closed her apartment door behind her as she made her way down to her car. 

“But this idiot- he doesn’t remember where she stored the rest of them. I’ve been searching her apartment so I can find yours.” Frowning Claire moved into her car nearly dropping the phone when she shut the door. Worried about her brother she stuck the key into the ignition and she began to make her way to where Jill’s apartment was. It was a half-hour drive from here but Claire did not care as she pressed her foot into the gas pedal. 

“You didn’t tell me because you were afraid of disappointing me?” She eventually asked listening to her brother grow angrier and angrier. 

She heard the sound of movement and a thud of something before Chris answered her question.

“I didn’t want to bring it up unless I had too. I know how difficult it is...even the whole idea of Jill having a will is…” Chris’s voice drifted again and Claire’s heart seized with her sorrow and understanding. 

“She’s smart like that. Especially in her line of work I mean but in general she’s...” Claire whispered out her voice gravelly from her crying. She felt more tears rise to the surface and she allowed them to escape, droplets of her tears falling past her lips. 

Hearing Chris laugh she managed a weak smile before he spoke again. 

“I think I found something. You’re on your way, aren’t you?” Chris asked after a beat as she increased the pressure on the acceleration. 

“Of course I am. Neither of us need to be alone and If these happen to be...her last words. I need to know.” Claire admitted closing her eyes briefly when she had to stop at a red light, the red and white sign post falling down to signal a train. 

“I thought trains were made to be fast.” Claire lamented with aggravation looking at the old locomotive as it chugged forward and across the tracks. Several train cars and containers followed and the grip on her black steering wheel tightened to the point her knuckles were white. 

“Go the scenic route.” Chris commented and Claire’s eyes opened along with a slight smile. 

“Alright, you owe me if my baby gets damaged.” Claire said with a reluctant sigh backing up the muscle car quickly with a screech. 

“Claire I was joking-” Chris said and Claire made him eat his words when she turned the speakerphone on and she dropped the phone to the other leather seat revving the engine as she turned to the right opposite the direction the train was going.  


“I’m not paying-” However anything else Chris said was silenced by the motor of the vehicle she was driving as she rode alongside the tracks turning smoothly when the train cars were finally clear. She turned across them feeling the car bump across the tracks until she made it on the other side. The car appeared fine but Claire imagined the front may have gotten a ding or two. Deciding to worry about it later she drove back to the road keeping a steady speed until she could see the apartment complex within her sight. 

“Claire if you hurt yourself…” She heard her brother's muffled voice idly threaten until she stopped the car in a spot next to Chris’s green truck. Turning off the ignition, Claire dropped the keys into her jacket pocket before she shifted over the console reaching to grab up the phone that had fallen between the seats. 

Turning off the speakerphone she let him know she made it fine before she hung up. 

Hearing a knock at the door, Chris stood to open it for Claire who immediately piled into him. He wrapped his arms around her, feeling her arms wrap around his neck as she squeezed before she let him go, a pass of understanding happening in their gaze before he motioned to Jill’s couch. 

“You’ve been crying.” Chris said with concern looking to see the redness and flushed expression on Claire’s face. She sat on the couch before she moved to hug her knees. 

“Like I said...I had a nightmare. It was about her falling...out the window.” She explained sighing deeply when she felt the tears resurface. Chris touched her shoulder in response giving her an understanding and sad smile. They shared a similar grief which Claire felt helped even though she did not want them to share it at all. 

“I have that nightmare often too but I think the worst one is when the memory of her name on her grave resurfaces.” Chris said, his deep voice falling into a sad whisper. Claire nodded her head slowly before she glanced to the box on the table in front of him. 

“Are those it?” She asked with slight hope and Chris shrugged slightly.

“Waited for you. Let’s open it.” He stated flipping over the green box glad despite the keyhole on the front that it was unlocked. To his bittersweet delight, the box was full of letters and a few items scattered within it. 

Picking through the letters, Chris lifted up the one with his sister’s name before he lifted the one with his own. Noticing familiar names such as Barry and Rebecca he kept in mind that he needed to get the letters to them. 

He heard Claire take a deep breath and Chris glanced over to her as she traced her finger over the top as she opened it. 

“There’s two for Leon and Sherry…” Chris commented after he picked through more of them. Stopping to look over Claire smiled slightly at the thoughtfulness of Jill who had written letters to all she held dear. 

“What about Carlos?” She chuckled slightly, her smile rising when Chris nodded his head. Her smile was short lived when she pulled something out of the envelope. She gasped quietly upon lifting up a familiar necklace. 

It would appear to most to be a simple silver necklace with no special design or engravings of any kind but Claire knew it was the necklace Jill had worn during Raccoon City. 

“Why did she keep this?” Claire wondered running her thumb across the cool metal before she moved to put it over her neck. 

“Jill’s more sentimental than she would ever let on.” Chris chuckled out a quirk of a smile on his face at seeing the necklace around Claire’s neck.  


“She used to make jokes about me being ‘made in heaven’.” Claire said with a blush when Chris laughed aloud. 

Wiping some of the tears from her face, Claire moved one of her legs to the floor as she shifted to unfold the letter taking in the writing as her eyes flicked across the words. Chris appeared to be doing the same and she glanced up for a moment when he moved to stand walking out of the room. 

Ignoring it for the moment she continued to read Jill’s letter. 

“If you’re reading this then I’m not there to tell you everything I meant to say or never got around to saying to you when I should have. This is why I wrote this and trust me I threw so many scraps of paper away while doing this I could start a newspaper.” Claire chuckled softly as she continued to read the contents of the letter aloud to herself. 

“I could say I love you but that would be repeating something as true as saying the moon rises at night. Claire, I struggled so long with this feeling and that feeling was that I couldn’t live without you. You gave me hope when I remember having difficulty grasping onto it. You saved me from real-life monsters and the monsters that tried to haunt me every night. You helped me believe in healing and you protected my heart like no one else…” 

She expelled a shaky breath as she took in Jill’s words almost having to re-read a few lines so she knew it was real. She continued to read feeling her heart swell with pain and joy seemingly at once. 

“I need you to keep fighting for me even when you feel like giving up. I don’t want to see you again until we are supposed too. Please keep trying for me, my love, no matter what might have happened to me…” Claire whispered out breaking into sobs when she nearly dropped the paper. She closed her eyes when she felt Chris wrap his arms around her and she continued to cry into his protective shoulder knowing she wasn’t imaging it when she felt tears fall onto her shoulder and neck.  


“We’re going to be okay, aren’t we?” Claire eventually asked after several minutes, keeping a tight grasp on Chris’s arms when he moved from the hug. Looking down she was met with his watery eyes.

“I don’t know.” Chris whispered out standing up straighter before he gestured to his letter. 

“There’s something else she left for us, think you’re up to it?” He asked, setting his own letter into the envelope as he spoke. Having removed her hands from his arms Claire picked up the letter before she nodded. 

“I-I’ll read the rest of my letter later.” She said, clearing her throat as she tucked it into the envelope and safely into her jacket. “Oh yeah.” Claire said afterward, setting her handgun onto the coffee table in front of them. 

Chris chose not to comment as he lifted up a VHS tape from a box Claire had not seen him bring in. Curiously she watched him as he set the tape within Jill’s old TV suddenly glad she hadn’t gotten rid of it when the tape began to play. 

Static appeared at first but to her relief the tape showed up a slightly fuzzy picture. Claire’s expression lit up slightly when she began to recognize the location. 

“Barry’s backyard?” Chris curiously questioned when a voice flooded the room that belonged to Rebecca. 

“Remember when we stopped by in ‘99.” Claire said nudging him when Barry came into view. He was wearing a brown short sleeved shirt and he appeared to be grilling. Chris soon came into view and Claire held in a laugh at how skinny he looked back then. 

“Rebecca, what are you doing?” Barry asked in a grumble shielding his face when the camera was directed towards his face. Rebecca's laugh sounded out so she quickly moved the camera away towards Chris who was holding a beer. He merely gave the camera a smirk because soon after Jill appeared behind Rebecca startling her enough that she nearly dropped the camera. The film was shaky for a moment before it was lifted up revealing Jill who was wearing a blue blouse and jeans with her hair still as short as it was that night in Raccoon. 

Claire leaned slightly closer as she watched a smile growing on her face when she saw herself right next to Jill with a happy grin on her face as she laughed after Jill made a joke. Chris smiled from besides Claire when Jill and Claire moved to hold each other’s hands. He could see the soft look in Jill’s eyes and the affection they shared when they looked at each other. The tape continued as they watched and they laughed a bit. It was among the rarest of times when they all came together without fear to simply enjoy being human before they all went back into the world of Bio terror. If Chris remembered correctly this was when he started to notice that Jill was generally happier than he ever remembers her being. His soft gaze drifted from the TV when he heard Claire speak.

“I miss her more than anything…” Claire breathed out once the tape stopped. 

“I miss her too.” Chris replied with a frown looking to his sister before the room suddenly darkened. Her vision blurred and she gripped the necklace around her neck as her heart was surrounded by sorrow and heartbreak. Helplessly Chris hugged her to his chest as memories of their friend flowed through his mind.

Three years later, Claire brushed away her bangs and she turned her head noticing the shadows of rain as it hit the far window to her left. The sound was soothing as her heart raced in fast beats. Claire was sitting at her desk realizing she had nearly drifted off. Shakily she touched her fingers to the letter in front of her, the memory replaying in her mind as she looked at it for the hundredth time. Of any item, despite her tendency to lose things she had kept this letter secured within her most treasured belongings. Tears could be seen on the yellowed pages and Claire sighed as she moved to wipe away her fresh tears. At times, she could get lost for hours in her memories and part of it she knew was because of what some things could do to her. Despite knowing the letter was an opening to a difficult past and that it touched upon one of the hardest times of her life, she found comfort in reading it whenever she felt lonely. 

Loneliness was an emotion she felt often. No matter how many dates she would go on due to coworker’s urging she hated the dates and she felt there was no reason for her to try and connect to another person that way. Damaged or not, Claire knew who she loved. Who she was always going to love and despite knowing it was extremely unhealthy she felt no one could fill Jill’s space. Claire did not want to be with anyone if it wasn’t Jill.

“I love you.” Claire cried out in a broken tone lifting her hands to her face, her tears seeming to run out because of how many tears she cried. 

She startled slightly when she accidentally knocked over a picture and Claire moved to lift it back up her pain seeming to increase when she saw that it was a picture of her and Jill. 

Most days Claire made it like any human being and she worked trying her best to keep living and saving people from the horrors of bio terrorism that tried to rise from the dark reaches of the Earth. It made her feel something and she was proud of her accomplishments but some days Claire allowed herself to spend time alone at home. She was far from her grieving state three years ago but the pain sometimes resurfaced like a bullet. Despite this the memories of Jill kept her going. She could never forget her and she was able to keep away from the bars and the liquor stores despite the many times she felt tempted. Some nights she came close to drowning her sorrows in a bottle. There were other nights where she came close to being a danger to herself. Luckily thanks to her brother and close friends she got help. It was difficult telling a stranger her deepest fears and most difficult feelings but Claire vowed to never give up because of her silent promise to Jill Valentine. 

Claire stood from the desk and she set the small box back into the top of her apartment’s closet. Sighing she took a drink of the water on her desk a little disappointed that it was now lukewarm. Suddenly her eyes landed on the calendar on the wall and she laughed bitterly. 

“Valentine’s day.” Claire grumbled out her eyebrows knitting downward when her phone rang out playing the latest Paramore song. Searching for it in the mess of her bedroom she lifted up her hands in slight frustration until she nearly stepped on it. 

Moving to fish it out of a jeans pocket that had been haphazardly tossed to the floor the night before Claire blinked upon seeing Chris’s name. She answered it quickly with worry and excitement since she’s yet to hear from him since before he left for Africa. 

“Claire…” She heard Chris’s voice say and she was surprised by how loud his voice was. 

“I’m okay and...I have something to tell you. A lot to tell you actually.” Chris said and Claire let out a large sigh of relief. The reports about Kijuju had been minimal and kept mostly classified. 

“Good news I hope.” Claire couldn’t help but joke nervously while she moved to sit at the end of her bed to avoid pacing. The call became a little static before it cleared up when Chris spoke again. 

“This is going to be sudden and I want you to be sitting…” Growing a little frustrated Claire refrained from a caustic remark since she had no idea what Chris encountered while in Africa. 

“Jill’s alive.”


End file.
